Iran has announced its intention to build 10 new nuclear-enrichment sites. What? How could this be? Surely the international community’s outrage at Iran’s deception, which then led last week to a really strong letter to the editor — excuse me, scolding from the International Atomic Weapons Agency — was going to teach the Persians a thing or two!
It would seem logical to assume the purpose of these multiple sites is to make a successful military strike to downgrade or destroy Iran’s nuclear-bomb-making capacity difficult to the point of impossibility. It would be hard enough for Israel or the United States to stage a complex series of simultaneous surprise aerial bombings against four locations; from four to 14 would certainly be beyond Israel’s capacity and would significantly strain our own.
Remember when everybody was saying, including in the Democratic primary for president, that it would be unacceptable for Iran to get the bomb? Remember when President Bush said those who allowed Iran to get the bomb would enjoy the same reputation in the annals of history as the Western leaders at Munich?
Oh my gosh, I think I’m going to start crying like a baby. Hillary Clinton did not really do anything wrong. She is simply a white woman—and thus is a second class citizen when it comes to identity politics. Barack “Barry” Obama is a black man. End of story. If only Hillary had at least one black parent. She would have never had to worry about a thing.
The neo-con wet dream of running against Hillary will not be consummated. Be careful what you wish for! McCain is nothing but more of the same, and that’s not gonna work, even in Utah!
The issue now or very soon before the McCain campaign is and fellow travelers is, if Hillary’s herstory, how do we make the most and best of it?
It occurred to me today – maybe it’s so obvious to the rest of you that you see no need to comment on it – that, like so many other failed tactics against Obama, Clinton’s complaints about media favoritism do little for her, but may be at least marginally helpful for the Republicans heading into the general election. Within the Democratic context, complaining about media bias only serves to underline the fact for a liberal audience that all those like-minded journalists have virtually endorsed her opponent. She might as well complain that African Americans are biased against her, or labor union leaders, or pro-choice activists. On the other hand, however, we now have the Clintons dramatically on record, and many of their supporters believing, that she never got a fair shake from the Obamaphiliac media.
We might even hope that criticism and the NYT experience will lead the media to bend over backwards for an appearance of fairness going forward (and I do think that Russert went into last night’s debated intending to be tough and provocative toward both candidates). It may be more realistic to hope also that, despite all of Hillary’s attempts to get to the left of Barack on issues, some politically significant number of her supporters will, at least for a time, be more accessible to overtures from McCain. Recent McCain-favorable polls seems to support the notion.
The door might close more quickly and firmly for Hillary-supporting women voters than for security-oriented moderates generally, a possibility that makes me wish that McCain would throw caution to the winds and pick a Shelley Capito, Marsha Blackburn, or Sarah Palin, or some truly outside-the-envelope woman, for VP, and earlier rather than later – knowing that the Dems will hardly be in a position to criticize any supposed lack of experience at the bottom of the ticket in light of what they’re offering at the top. He could even offer a straight talk defense of such gender tokenism – arguing among other thing that it’s important for the country that the Republicans obtain the “seasoning” for their, ahem, appealing young talent at the earliest possible moment, or some such.
I wish that Meg Whitman (Romney supporter) or Carly Fiorina (McCain) had shown some personal interest and credible experience in electoral politics, and it’s still possible to fantasize about under-the-radar picks from other realms, but I readily acknowledge he’ll probably go with Pawlenty or some “amplifying” and responsible, boring conservative choice – and I’ll support it. Still, a guy can dream, can’t he?
From the linked article: “About 15 staffers were in a room with Mrs. Clinton discussing how she could best respond to a particular line of attack. One of the aides, the source recalled, had an idea.
“I think you need to show a little bit of humanity,” said the aide.
Mr. Penn interjected. “Oh, come on, being human is overrated.”
“Everyone laughed and it broke the tension, and even he had a smile on his face,” said the source. “But it said a lot because it seemed to really encapsulate a viewpoint.””
Far be it for me, a Conservative, to defend Penn, but frankly having someone on the campaign staff whose response to an obvious, bald-faced and unmistakable joke is to whine that the joke “encapsulated” something is the telling comment on the campaign, not the joke being discussed.
We know where Hillary found Penn, but where in Hades did she manage to find the “encapsulate” commenter. What a plodding and tedious bore.
Iran’s Nuclear Noise…
Iran is making noise in the wake of the IAEA’s censure last week. Mahmoud Ahmedinejad told Iran’s state TV that the country will now build an astounding ten more nuclear plants.
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